Overflow
by Andrejia
Summary: Two very different evenings at Allen's and an overflow of emotions.
1. Chapter 1

Infinite thanks to cherithcutestory2 who beta-ed me so wonderfully. That _cannot_ be said enough! This is, well, sort of A/U, since it never happened on the show. I dislike going against canon, but this idea just wouldn't leave me. It's a two-parter. Usual disclaimers apply and of course R&Rs are much appreciated.

* * *

As Annie walked through the doors of that bar, her heart began pounding. Every systole felt like a drum beat that was getting louder and louder. She paced gracefully, like a seasoned fashion model on the catwalk, wearing her newest treasure: a pair of nude stilettos that made her feel invincible. Feminine. A monad. She needed to feel invincible; she needed every little crutch to help her feel that way to be able to survive the evening. She knitted her eyebrows, looking down, hips swaying, a hand tucking a rebel strand of hair. She was an actress trying to get in character for the next scene. Ironically, she had chosen a yellow dress for the occasion. Yellow. The color of jealousy.

As Annie walked through the doors of that bar, she knew for a fact that she was never going to be able to sit across him again at a table _here_ and not think about this moment. Their sanctuary was forever compromised.

As Annie walked through the doors of that bar, she straightened up, readjusted her ponytail and put on her best smile. Deception techniques would come in handy this evening, as she understood that this was merely the second step of a series of events that would change her life. He was getting married, but not to her.

She spotted him at a table way in the back, gently holding a small hand in his, fingers intertwined. Protective and loving. He would never hold her hand like that. As she strode towards them, she took in the whole scene, her eyes shifting from him to her. Long wavy hair, young, innocent. Not tainted by the daily routines of a job too dangerous. As the distance between her and _them_ grew smaller and smaller, the distance between her and _him_ grew bigger.

"Hi," she offered, stopping abruptly right next to the table, waiting for Auggie's next move. His face lit up as he looked in her general direction. Making sense of the darkness had become a thing and she loved watching his features change as he put a name to a voice.

He stood up and opened his arms for an embrace. Annie had fooled herself once or twice into thinking that him greeting her like that meant more than friendship. That thought would never occur to her again.

"Annie Walker, you finally made it. I had almost given up on you," he greeted, standing.

_It's OK. I've given up on you. We would've been even then_.

Auggie took a deep breath. This was it. "Annie, this-" he started, his right hand moving across the table, locating Parker's soft fingers, using the techniques he never thought he'd memorize during his first week in rehab, "-is Parker."

He presented his conquest so proudly.

Parker stood up as well, smiling coyly, probably intimidated by the fact that Annie was the first person in Auggie's life she had gotten to meet.

"Very glad to meet you," the younger woman said as she stretched her right hand, silently wondering whether Auggie and Annie's paychecks were signed by the same employer.

Annie mentally congratulated herself again on her decision to wear such high heels, allowing her to look the much-taller Parker in the eye.

"I'm Annie." She shook Parker's hand, oozing confidence. "Sorry I'm late, I had a thing."

"Yeah, yeah," Auggie waved his hand dismissively. "I'm just glad you're here because Parker-" he said, as he turned to face his girlfriend "-thought you only existed in my head"

Parker rolled her eyes, smiling. "I did not. It's just that Auggie doesn't talk much about his friends. So when he started telling me about you and insisting that we meet…I was just a little taken by surprise."

Parker had been even more surprised when she had found out just a few days before the big event that the "friend" he kept insisting she meet wasn't a man.

"Well yeah, but you've been in Eritrea with the Peace Corps for a while," Annie interrupted her, waving for the waitress.

Annie felt Parker's eyes on her and recognized on the brunette's face a questioning look. Parker was definitely suspecting _something_; she was becoming restless.

"Wow. You seem to know so much about me, while I don't even know your last name."

After Parker's last remark, Annie looked at Auggie for a second, trying to figure out whether he'd read in his fiancée yet. She decided to go with the safe scenario and assume he hadn't.

"It's Walker," Auggie interrupted, very matter-of-factly, softly squeezing Parker's left hand. It was his way of saying that he was going to be open with her from now on, that he was going to share what tidbits he could.

Parker was attractive, Annie couldn't deny that. And she had an aura of sorts that obviously awakened in Auggie all those overprotective feelings he longed to bring to the surface. As Annie and Parker sat face to face, the stark contrast between them became palpable. Annie's elegant and sure moves, her confidence, her smile and expensive clothing: they were a mask under which she hid what was left of her heart. And while she was broken, Parker had all the reasons in the world to be the most powerful opposite the blonde spy had ever sat across from. Yet, her voice and gestures betrayed her utter lack of confidence. How could she be so unsure when she was holding such a strong man's heart?

Their topics of conversation pinballed through all the safe routes. The Peace Corps, what made Parker join, Annie's fabulous shoes and where did she get those nails done? Until the young and innocent one had to take a bathroom break.

As soon as Parker was out of the picture, Annie's Venetian mask fell to the ground, allowing her face to wear the heartbreak. She took a deep breath to steady her voice enough to be able to answer Auggie's question: "So, what do you think?"

Annie thought for a moment about cracking some jokes about a huge birthmark, bulging eyes or terrifying nostrils, but as she looked at him, she saw on his face a longing for normalcy, for a real life. So she told him the truth.

"She's perfect!"

Auggie let out a deep breath.

"You know," he said, taking another sip of his beer, "I expected better material out of you."

"What do you mean?" she almost whispered, smiling so broadly she was sure he could hear it in her voice. She should stop flirting; he was going to be a married man.

"I mean you caved at the first question. _She's perfect_," he mimicked her.

"Well, blind jokes are really starting to get old, you know. _You _should think about changing your repertoire."

"Oh, har. Maybe I should just get newer friends."

They both leaned over the table as Auggie started answering her questions – mostly silly and asked as a joke – about Somali pirates and jumping off rooftops. Annie felt her whole body pulling closer to his, an outer force she didn't seem to be able to control. She finally had to pull back a bit, straighten up in her chair. She felt like Zeno had thought of her when he penned the dichotomy paradox: she could never fully conquer the distance between them, always an infinite number of halves keeping them apart.

* * *

Parker emerged from the bathroom, as pensive as she always seemed to be in the weeks since getting back from Eritrea, playing unconsciously with her pearl ring and taking mental inventories. And as she watched Annie and Auggie, all lost in their conversation, she found another item she had to add to her "Why Not to Marry Auggie" list. She would never be able to look at him _like that._

Parker found her way back next to Auggie and firmly took his hand in a gesture of possessiveness, all the while never breaking eye contact with Annie. Parker didn't know what she had just witnessed—she still had a myriad of questions about Auggie's life-but until that list was complete, she didn't want to let go of his hand.

* * *

"Oh no, you have to go?" Parker feigned regret as Annie's phone rang, someone asking for her assistance.

What a bad, bad spy she'd be.

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to do this again" Auggie stated, believing wholeheartedly in his words.

As soon as Annie walked out that door, Parker felt entitled to ask the question that had been on the tip of her tongue ever since she'd found out about this evening.

"So do you two work together?"

Parker watched as he navigated the table, finding her hand, then using it to guide him to her lips. He kissed her softly, then placed another kiss on her forehead.

"I'm not saying we do, but you can't ask me this question about everyone I have in my life," he whispered in her ear.

After he'd paid, they both stood up and Parker took the sighted guide position, as he'd taught her. And as she helped him navigate the tables and chairs, she caught their reflection in a big mirror near the door. This was going to be her life now: leading a blind husband through a life that was as dark for her as it literally was for him.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N - Thank you all for the wonderful feedback! This place rocks, actually :)

* * *

As Parker walked through the doors of that bar, a familiar nervousness crept in her stomach. She was instantly taken back to this same place that served as Ground Zero merely three years ago. This place had truly been the trigger, nudging her to finally be brave enough and step out of the darkness that overtook her life ever since her brother had died. After her first and up until now only evening in this bar, she had realized that she had held on to him for all the wrong reasons. Back then, in her still**-** grieving mind, it wasn't Auggie or the promise of a happy ending love story she was holding on to, but what he meant to her – a connection to Billy.

As Parker walked through the doors of that bar, she tried to fight back all the bad memories and lock them in a box. It took almost four years in the Peace Corps, countless arguments with her parents, a few hooks ups abroad and a man who didn't deserve to get his heart broken…but she had found herself and she didn't feel the need to run away again. Parker had finally gotten over her brother's death and now she was feeling like one of the escaped prisoners as described in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". She had escaped the darkness and was ready to live her life. She was no longer chained; she no longer lived in a world of shadows.

Parker walked through the doors of that bar and rearranged her dress, put on her best smile and took a deep breath. She was finally healed and she was anxious to see her best friend after such a long time. This was the beginning of her new life. She found an empty table and sat down, texting her rendezvous that she has arrived, although close to twenty minutes earlier.

As she looked around to find a waitress, her eyes fell upon a table all the way in the back and the two people occupying it that seemed too lost in conversation to notice anything else. She closed her eyes for a second. _Shit. What were the odds? _Of all the places in D.C. her friend had to choose this one.

She was glad that she was already sitting down because her body was taken hostage by that unique nervousness that captures it the moment someone lays eyes on a former boyfriend. Former fiancée, in this case. And sitting across the table from _him_, his sworn 'best friend', the ever so elegant Amy. _Wait, no, that wasn't her name_. _It was…Annie; yeah, Annie_, Parker jogged her memory a bit.

Parker played her own spy game for a moment and started studying the two, as sheer curiosity got the best of her. Annie and Auggie were leaning over the table, looking like they were almost whispering to each other. Like they were sharing secrets.

She barely had the time to get used to the sight of Auggie after so long, when she saw _it._ A little gold band wrapping his finger, a sign of commitment and maturity. As Annie reached out for his hand and intertwined her fingers with his, Parker noticed she was wearing the pairing ring.

A thought crept its way in her mind. _That could've been me._ Much to Parker's surprise, the thought of 'what if', putting herself in Annie's shoes, didn't make her daydream about happy ends and picket fences; it only brought back unsettling feelings.

"Hi! Oh my God, I'm so sorry I'm late! " Her friend's voice suddenly brought Parker back to reality.

* * *

"Parker". Annie was taken aback to see the young brunette in the ladies' bathroom at Allen's, but, as she'd done professionally over the years, she hid her surprise in no time.

"Hi…", Parker responded, putting her hands in the small pockets of her dress.

"Hi. How are you? You look – you look great", Annie smiled widely.

"Thanks", Parker took a moment to look at Annie head to toe. She seemed the same, maybe just a bit more mature. The high heels were missing, though, being replaced with a pair of low sandals, but it wasn't Annie's petite figure that made Parker not feel intimidated by her anymore. It was something else, something Parker couldn't really put her finger on. But to her it almost seemed like the Annie she had met three years ago and the one standing right in front of her now were two almost completely different people.

Parker thought about breaking the awkward moment and just getting back to her table, but she couldn't fight the feeling in her gut. The words needed to get out.

"So, you and Auggie, huh? Con – congratulations!" She felt she didn't need to explain her finding any further.

Annie smiled as she started playing with her wedding ring. This whole thing was still new to her, too. "Thank you."

Normally, Parker would think she was holding the upper hand, given that it had been her decision to leave Auggie that allowed him and Annie to happen. But as this thought made its way in her mind, the reverse scenario was the logical follow-up. If she wouldn't have left him, would he have eventually left her for Annie?

"I think you two are a better match. At least you can talk about other things than weather and music". Parker sighed, smiling nervously.

"Parker, listen…"Annie started explaining.

"You were in love with him back then, weren't you?"

There really wasn't any point in lying, Annie thought. All her time out in the field, reading people and turning them into assets, allowed her to have a bit of an insight into where Parker's question was coming from. As brief as Parker and Auggie relationship had been, its importance couldn't be denied and Parker seemed to need reassurance.

"Yes", Annie answered earnestly. "But you must know that I would have never acted on those feelings. I just wanted to see him happy."

"You really do love him".

Parker took a deep breath. This was her final act, the closure she felt she needed ever since he slammed that door in her face and told her not to reach out to him ever again. About three or four times after analyzing their relationship over and over, in a OCD-like loop, Parker wrote him an email that probably still existed in her Drafts folder. She lost the chance to explain things to him, but she needed to say the words aloud and Annie was the perfect second-on-the-list candidate.

"It would've been wrong to marry him and I'm glad I didn't make that mistake. Having Auggie in my life would've been an eternal reminder of Billy. Our coming together was based on…", she took a deep breath, remembering her brother's death, "on a tragedy. I just got confused"

"You really don't have to explain yourself to me", Annie smiled warmly.

Parker nodded, and then made her way to the exit. She stopped a bit, like there was something else important she forgot to say. "I don't think he needs to find out about this, us meeting"

Annie nodded. "Sure."

* * *

Annie rested her head on her husband's shoulder and closed her eyes, smiling.

"I think I've outgrown Allen's".

"Reaaallly"? Auggie asked, softly kissing her forehead.

"It feels like I don't really belong there, you know? Now that I'm out…I don't know…"

"Just consider it a trip down the memory lane"

"Speaking of memories, guess who I ran into in the bathroom"

"Do I really have to guess or are you just gonna tell me?"

"Second option. I ran into Parker. Oh, and she told me not to tell you."

"And yet you are telling me."

"No more secrets, remember?", she noted playfully.


End file.
